Israelis Berl and Smadar are on an airplane that crashes in the Pacific ocean. They paddle their lifeboat to the usual island. There are many pressing problems of survival, as well as natural urges that suggest themselves in that situation.

"What are we going to do?" asks Smadar.

"We need to give up the occupied West Bank immediately," says Berl.

"Never. We must annex Judea and Samaria immediately!" says Smadar.

Since 1967, every question concerned with Israel and with the Middle East has been answered in terms of the territories conquered in the 6-day war. Everyone who talks about Israeli national planning and strategy discusses the occupation. Everyone in Israel who discusses the problem of Islamist terror also ties it to the territorial question as well. Those who want to keep the territories are also those who insist that all Muslims are Islamists and they are all out to destroy Israel, while those who want to "end the occupation" at any cost often behave as if the Hamas and al-Qaeda are liberal democrats. End the occupation and they will all love Israel. The convenience of these stances are obvious. They are not related to any facts about the Qur'an or Islamic beliefs or Islamist ambitions. They only serve to support different theses about the territories.